Corporate Marketing

Welcome to the Corporate Marketing Handbook

The Corporate Marketing team includes Content Marketing, Corporate Events, PR, and Design. Corporate Marketing is responsible for the stewardship of the GitLab brand and the company's messaging/positioning. The team is the owner of the Marketing website and oversees the website strategy. Corporate Marketing develops a global, integrated communication strategy, executes globally, and enables field marketing to adapt and apply global strategy regionally by localizing and verticalizing campaigns for in-region execution. Corporate marketing also ensures product marketing, outreach, and marketing & sales development are conducted in a way that amplifies our global brand.

Brand personality

GitLab's brand has a personality that is reflected in everything we do. It doesn't matter if we are hosting a fancy dinner with fortune 500 CIOs, at a hackathon, or telling our story on about.gitlab.com…across all our communication methods, and all our audiences, GitLab has a personality that shows up in how we communicate.

Our personality is built around four main characteristics.

Human: We write like we talk. We avoid buzzwords and jargon, and instead communicate simply, clearly, and sincerely. We treat people with kindness.

Competent: We are highly accomplished, and we communicate with conviction. We are efficient at everything we do.

Quirky: We embrace diversity of opinion. We embrace new ideas based on their merit, even if they defy commonly held norms.

Humble: We care about helping those around us achieve great things more than we care about our personal accomplishments.

These four characteristics work together to form a personality that is authentic to GitLab team members, communioty, and relatable to our audience. If we were quirky without being human we could come across as eccentric. If we were competent without being humble we could come across as arrogant.

GitLab has a higher purpose. We want to inspire a sense of adventure in those around us so that they join us in contributing to making that mission a reality.

Style guide and tone of voice

The following guide outlines the set of standards used for all written company communications to ensure consistency in voice, style, and personality across all of GitLab's public communications.

About

GitLab the community

GitLab is an open source project with a large community of contributors. Over 2,000 people worldwide have contributed to GitLab's source code.

GitLab the company

GitLab Inc. is a company based on the GitLab open source project. GitLab Inc. is an active participant in our community (see our stewardship of GitLab CE for more information), as well as offering GitLab, a product (see below).

GitLab the product

GitLab is a single application for the complete DevOps lifecycle. See the product elevator pitch for additional messaging.

Tone of voice

The tone of voice we use when speaking as GitLab should always be informed by our Content Strategy. Most importantly, we see our audience as co-conspirators, working together to define and create the next generation of software development practices. The below table should help to clarify further:

We are:

We aren't:

Equals in our community

Superior

Knowledgeable

Know-it-alls

Empathetic

Patronizing

Straightforward

Verbose

Irreverent

Disrespectful

Playful

Jokey

Helpful

Dictatorial

Transparent

Opaque

We explain things in the simplest way possible, using plain, accessible language.

We keep a sense of humor about things, but don't make light of serious issues or problems our users or customers face.

We use colloquialisms and slang, but sparingly (don't look like you're trying too hard!).

Updating the /press/#press-releases page

Scroll down to press_releases:, then scroll to the most recent dated press release.

Underneath, add another entry for your new press release using the same format as the others, ensuring that your alignment is correct and that dashes and words begin in the same columns.

The URL for your press release will follow the format of your filename for it: /press/releases/YYYY-MM-DD-title-of-press-release.html.

Updating the recent news section

Every Friday the PR agency will send a digest of top articles

Product marketing will update the Recent News section with the most recent listed at the top. Display 10 articles at a time. To avoid formatting mistakes, copy and paste a previous entry on the page, and edit with the details of the new coverage. You may need to search online for a thumbnail to upload to images/press, if coverage from that publication is not already listed on the page. If you upload a new image, make sure to change the path listed next to image_tag.

Add all relevant details, goal(s), purpose, resources, and links in the issue description. Also @ mention team members who will be involved.

Set due date (if possible) — please leave at least 2 week lead time in order to generate custom design assets. If you need them sooner, ping @luke in the #marketing-design slack channel and we will make our best effort to accommodate, but can't promise delivery.

Any design requests that do not fall in line with the goals and objectives of Marketing will be given a lower priority and factored in as time allows.

Design touchpoints

The Design team has a rather wide reach and plays a big part in almost all marketing efforts. Design touchpoints range from the GitLab website to print collateral, swag, and business cards. This includes, but certainly not limited to:

Content Design

Promotional videos & animations

Social media campaign assets

Webcast collateral & assets

eBooks

Whitepapers

Infographics & diagrams

In the spirit of 'everyone can contribute' (as well as version control and SEO) we prefer webpages over PDFs. We will implement a print.css component to these webpages so that print PDFs can still be utilized for events and in-person meetings without the headache of version control

Brand Guidelines

To download the GitLab logo (in various formats and file types) check out our Press page.

The GitLab logo

The GitLab logo consists of two components, the icon (the tanuki) and the wordmark:

GitLab is most commonly represented by the logo, and in some cases, the icon alone. GitLab is rarely represented by the wordmark alone as we'd like to build brand recognition of the icon alone (e.g. the Nike swoosh), and doing so by pairing it with the GitLab wordmark.

Logo safe space

Safe space acts as a buffer between the logo or icon and other visual components, including text. this space is the minimum distance needed and is equal to the x-height of the GitLab wordmark:

The x-height also determines the proper spacing between icon and workdmark, as well as, the correct scale of the icon relative to the wordmark:

The Tanuki

The tanuki is a very smart animal that works together in a group to achieve a common goal. We feel this symbolism embodies GitLab's mission that everyone can contribute, our values, and our open source stewardship.

Under the Creative Commons license, you may use the GitLab trademark and logo so long as you give attribution to GitLab and provide a link to the license. If you make any changes to the logo, you must state so, along with the attribution, and distribute under the same license.

Your use of the GitLab trademark and logo:

May not be for commercial purposes;

May not suggest or imply that you or your use of the GitLab trademark or logo is endorsed by GitLab, or create confusion as to whether or not you or your use of the GitLab trademark or logo is endorsed by GitLab; and

May not suggest or imply or that you are affiliated with GitLab in any way, or create confusion as to whether or not you are affiliated with GitLab in any way.

Examples of improper use of the GitLab trademark and logo:

The GitLab name may not be used in any root URL, including subdomains such as gitlab.company.com or gitlab.citool.io.

The GitLab trademark and/or logo may not be used as the primary or prominent feature on any non-GitLab materials.

Using other logos

Logos used on the about.gitlab.com site should always be in full color and be used to the specifications provided by the owner of that logo, which can usually be found on the owners website. The trust marks component found throughout the site is the only exception and should use a neutral tone:

The tanuki logo should also not have facial features (eyes, ears, nose…), it is meant to be kept neutral, but it can be accessorized.

Colors

While the brand is ever-evolving, the GitLab brand currently consists of six primary colors that are used in a wide array of marketing materials.

Hex/RGB

Typography

The GitLab brand uses the Source Sans Pro font family. Headers (h1, h2, etc.) always have a weight of 600 (unless used in special situations like large, custom quotes) and the body text always has a weight of 400. Headers should not be given custom classes, they should be used as tags and tags alone (h1, h2, etc.) and their sizes or weights should not be changed, unless rare circumstances occur. Here are typography tags.

H1: Header Level 1

H2: Header Level 2

H3: Header Level 3

H4: Header Level 4

p: Body text

Buttons

Buttons are an important facet to any design system. Buttons define a call to action that lead people somewhere else, related to adjacent content. Here are buttons and their classes that should be used throughout the marketing website:

Note: Text within buttons should concise, containing no more than 4 words, and should not contain bold text. This is to keep thing simple, straightforward, and limits confusion as to where the button takes you.

Primary buttons

Primary buttons are solid and should be the default buttons used. Depending on the color scheme of the content, purple or orange solid buttons can be used depending on the background color of the content. These primary buttons should be used on white or lighter gray backgrounds or any background that has a high contrast with the button color. They should also be a %a tag so it can be linked elsewhere and for accessibility. Buttons should also be given the class margin-top20 if the button lacks space between itself and the content above.

Secondary Buttons

There will be times when two buttons are needed. This will be in places such as our jobs page, where we have a button to view opportunities and one to view our culture video. In this example, both buttons are solid, but one is considered the primary button (orange), and the other is the secondary button (white). The CSS class for the solid white button is .btn.cta-btn.btn-white.

This is the proper use of two buttons, both being solid, but different colors based on hierarchy. If the background is white or a lighter color that doesn't contrast well with a white-backgound button, a ghost button should be used as a secondary button, and should match in color to the primary button beside it as shown below:

DO NOT: Do not use these ghost buttons styles as standalone buttons. They have been proven to be less effective than solid buttons in a number of studies. They should only be used as a secondary button, next to a solid primary button that already exists. Here are the classes for the secondary buttons:

Iconography

Icons are a valuable visual component to the GitLab brand; contributing to the overall visual language and user experience of a webpage, advertisement, or slide deck. The GitLab iconography currently consists of "label icons" and "content icons", each are explained in further detail below:

Label icons

Label icons are intended to support usability and interaction. These are found in interactive elements of the website such as navigation and toggles.

Content icons

Content icons are intended to provide visual context and support to content on a webpage; these icons also have a direct correlation to our illustration style with the use of bold outlines and fill colors.

Brand oversight

Occasionally the old GitLab logo is still in use on partner websites, diagrams or images, and within our own documentation. If you come across our old logo in use, please bring it to our attention by creating an issue in the Marketing issue tracker. Please include a link and screenshot (if possible) in the description of the issue and we will follow-up to get it updated. Thanks for contributing to our brand integrity!

The goal of this guide is to provide written standards, principles and in-depth information to design beautiful and effective GitLab features. This is a living document and will be updated and expanded as we iterate.

We've broken out the GitLab interface into a set of atomic pieces to form this design pattern library. This library allows us to see all of our patterns in one place and to build consistently across our entire product.

Abbreviations

Acronyms

When using acryonyms or initialisms, ensure that your first mention uses the full term and includes the shortened version in parentheses directly afterwards. From then on you may use the acronym or initialism instead.

Example: A Contributor License Agreement (CLA) is the industry standard for open source contributions to other projects.

Below are some common acroynms and initialisms we use which don't need to be defined first (but use sparingly, see Tone of voice above):

AFAIK - as far as I know

ICYMI - in case you missed it (for social only)

IIRC - if I recall correctly

IRL - in real life

TL;DR - too long; didn't read

Ampersands

Use ampersands only where they are part of a company's name or the title of a publication or similar. Example: Barnes & Noble

Appendix A: When to use en dashes and semicolons

Appendix B: UK vs. American English

Swag

We aim to have our swag delight and/ or be useful.

We aim to have swag that is versatile, easy to store, and transport. As a remote company with employees in over 40 countries, our swag often has to go on miraculous journeys. With this in mind we try to ship things that are durable, light, and that will be unlikely to get stuck in customs.

We aim to make limited edition and themed swag for the community to collect. Larger corporate events will have custom tanuki stickers in small runs, only available at their specific event. We also produce one regional specific sticker design per quarter.

We aim to do swag in a way that doesn't take a lot of time to execute => self serve => web shop

Community/ External Swag Requests:

If you would like to get some GitLab swag for your team or event, email your request to sponsorships@gitlab.com (managed by community advocacy team). In your request please include the expected number of guests, the best shipping address, and phone number along with what kind of swag you are hoping for. The swag we have available can be found on our online store. Note: We recommend you request swag at least 4 weeks out from the event date or we may not be able to accommodate your request.

Internal GitLab Swag Ordering:

Event Swag: To request additional GitLab materials for an event you are attending see instructions below.

The event in questions must be 4 or more weeks away for all swag and material requests. Rush shipping is not an option.

You can place small event swag orders by emailing sponsorships@gitlab.com. Include the date needed, shipping address and items/ volume desired. The request will be approved on the back end by the community team.

We have an event kit with a banner and table cloth. Contact events@gitlab.com if you would like to borrow this setup.

For larger swag orders (stickers in a quantity of 100 or greater), do not go through the swag store but rather use our Stickermule account or ping dsumenkovic@gitlab.com. Include address, date needed and order quantity in request.

If you have any issues with your order please email events@gitlab.com with your concerns.

GitLabber Swag- if you would like to order something from the GitLab swag shop we have a discount code you can use for 30% off (found in the channel description). Please see the swag slack channel to get code to be used in the store at checkout.

Returning Swag to Warehouse

If you have items that need to be returned to the warehouse please contact events@gitlab.com or find the FexEx account number in 1password to create a return label. returns are only recommended if you have a very large number of items or a booth setup (banner, tablecloth, backdrop) that need to be returned.

Swag for customer/ prospects

ATM a limited test group of SDR's have sendoso accounts and the ability to send physical swag, handwritten notes, and coffee giftcards. We are slowly adding new SDR users weekly and should have the whole SDR team on Sendoso accounts by end of Feb, 2019. If you have questions on what is appropriate to send review sending swag to customers parameters.

SA's, TAM's, and AE's should coordinate with their SDR to send swag to customers. We will be expanding accoutn access to these groups in the near future (Q2)

Each SDR has a set budget of $50 to spend on sneding swag and gift cards monthly. Mid market and SMB reps have $100.

All sends are tracked in SFDC, in either the physical or coffee swag campaign.

All other departments requesting swag for customers, prospects, candidates, partners… please add swag requests to swag channel in slack and someone on swag team will reply within 24 business hours with discount code for our shopify store. The standard amount we offer is $25 but we can offer any amount; please specify if you want an amount other than $25.

Coming soon (Q2): Swag send triggers. When a deal of a ceratin size is closed a swag package will ship on behalf of the AE. When a customer contract is up for a renewal another swag package will be triggered. Working to take any manual time spent on swag and building in paramaters.

We have GitLab stationary/ note cards- leave note in swag slack channel of you would like a batch to send notes to use to send to prospects/ customers/ community members.

Swag Providers We Use

New and Replenishment Swag Orders

Corporate handles the creating and ordering of all new swag. All swag designs should be run past design (Luke) for approval before going to production.

If you need swag for an upcoming event complete the swag selection of the event template and corporate will be in touch on issue to complete request. Note: at least 6 weeks to produce anything new and 2-3 weeks to reorder current designs.

Triggers are setup in Sendoso to remind our account admins when ballances and swag inventory is low. No need to ping anyone if you see inventory is low.

Reordering of inventory for internal swag requests is done by corporate team. See section above on swag providers we use for items not peroduced by Sendoso.

Suggesting New Items or Designs

You can suggest new designs in the swag slack channel or more formally in an issue in the swag project.

Speakers

For GitLabbers Attending Events/ Speaking

If you are interested in find out about speaking opportunities join the #CFP slack channel. Deadlines for talks can be found in the slack channel and in the master GitLab events spreadsheet.

If you want help building out a talk, coming up with ideas for a speaking opportunity, or have a customer interested in speaking start an issue in the marketing project using the CFP submissions template and tag any associated event issues. Complete as much info as possible and we will ping you with next steps. We are happy to help in anyway we can, including public speaking coaching.

If there is an event you would like to attend, are attending, speaking, or have proposed a talk and you would like support from GitLab to attend this event the process goes as follows:

Contact your manager for approval to attend/ speak.

After getting approval from your manager to attend, add your event/ talk to the events page and submit merge request to Emily Kyle.

If your travel and expenses are not covered by the conference, GitLab will cover your expenses (transportation, meals and lodging for days said event takes place). If those expenses will exceed $500, please get approval from your manager. When booking your trip, use our travel portal, book early, and spend as if it is your own money. Note: Your travel and expenses will not be approved until your event / engagement has been added to the events page.

If you are speaking please note your talk in the description when you add it to the Events Page.

We suggest bringing swag and/or stickers with you. See notes on #swag on this page for info on ordering event swag.

Finding and Suggesting Speakers and Submitting to CFPs

Speaker Portal: a catalogue of talks, speaker briefs and speakers can be found on our Find a Speaker page. Feel free to add yourself to this page and submit a MR if you want to be in our speaker portal and are interested in being considered for any upcoming speaking opportunities.

If you have a customer interested in speaking start an issue in the marketing project using the CFP submissions template and tag any associated event issues. Complete as much info as possible and we will ping you with next steps. We are happy to help in anyway we can, including public speaking coaching.

Corporate Events

Mission Statement

The mission of the Corporate Events Department is to:

Provide exceptional service

Build lasting and trusting vendor and internal relationships

Treat everyone like they are our most valued customer, including fellow GitLabbers

Deliver creative solutions to problems

Showcase the value and strengths of GitLab on all fronts

Corporate Events Strategy/ Goals

What does the corporate Events team handle?

Sponsored events (1000+, global reach)

Owned events

Internal events (Contribute-sized events)

Objectives:

Brand

For Sponsored Events: Get the GitLab brand in front of 15% of the event audience. 40,000 person event we would hope to get 4,000+ leads (10%) and 5% general awareness and visibility with additional branding and activities surrounding participation.

Human touches- Tracked by leads collected, social interactions, number of opportunities created, referrals, current customers met, and quality time spent on each interaction.

Will be subject to a valuation calculation- will it meet or exceed objectives listed above?

Does it drive business goals forward in the next quarter? Year?

Do we have the bandwidth and time to make it a success?

All of this will also be weighed against other current activity in region and department.

Please review our events decision tree to ensure Corporate Marketing is the appropriate owner for an event. If it is not clear who should own an event based on the decision tree, please email events@gitlab.com.

How We Assess Event Requests/ Event Scorecard

We ask the following questions when assessing an event:

Will there be a GitLab speaker? We do not require a speaker slot in return for sponsorship but we do prioritize events where the audience will be hearing about GitLab - either from a GitLab team member or a member of the wider GitLab community.

What type of people will be attending the event? We prioritize events attended by diverse groups of decision makers with an interest in DevOps, DevSecOps, Cloud Native, Kubernetes, Serverless, Multi-cloud, CI/CD, Open Source, and other related topics.

Will we be able to interact with attendees? We prioritize events that provide opportunities for meetings, workshops, booth or stands to help people find us, and other interaction with attendees.

Where will the event be held? We aim to have a presence at events around the globe with a particular focus on areas with large GitLab communities and large populations of support.

Is the event important for industry, thought leadership, or brand visibility? We prioritize events that influence trends and attract leaders and decision makers. We also prioritize events organized by our strategic partners.

What is the size of the opportunity for the event? We prioritize events based their potential reach (audience size, the number of interactions we have with attendees) and potential for ROI (also account for cycyle time). -What story do we have to tell here and how does the event fit into our overall strategy, goals, and product dircetion?

Do we have the bandwith and resoirces to make this activity a success? Do we have the cycles, funds, collateral and runway to invest fully and make this as successful as possible?

Each question is graded on a scale of 0-2. We then tally the scores and assign the event to a sponsorship tier.

Events scoring below 8 are not eligible for corporate sponsorship or financial support.

Events scoring 10+ are given top priority for staffing, and resources.

We ask these questions and use this scorecard to ensure that we're prioritizing the GitLab's brand and our community's best interests when we sponsor events.

If you have questions, you can always reach us by sending an e-mail to events@gitlab.com.

Event Execution

For questions regarding GitLab Contribute ping kirsten@gitlab.com

For hosted events and sponsored events that meet criteria above ping emily@gitlab.com or start an issue with event suggestion in Corporate Marketing Project. There is a template for suggesting new event sponsorships.

How We Decide Who Attends Which Events?

Corporate determines how many staffers we need based on the number of tickets we have allocated and activities we have at said event.

If the event is more enterprise-focused we try to send more marketing/ sales. Regional Sales Managers in partnership with FM select staffer based on who has the most potential contacts in the area or going to event.

If the event is more user-focused we will lean towards sending more technical people to staff and fewer sales.

See who is in the area who might be a good fit for the audience.

We lean towards those who might be thought leaders, specialists, or more social in that specific sector. Example: for KubeCon we will bring those who are Kubernetes experts on the team.

We aim to bring minimal staff to keep costs and disruption to normal workflow low. We take into account what value everyone will provide as well as staffing balance. Please check with emily@gitlab.com if you would like to or would like to suggest someone participate in an event.

Event staffing list will close 3 weeks before commencement of the event.

To request SA staffing, open an issue in the Customer Success project - SA Service Desk subproject - using the Event Participation Request template. The same should be done for Support team staffing. Open an issue in the support project requesting assistance.

If you are not officially involved in the event as part of the sponsorship, we would still like to know you will be attending so we can include you in any activities we have going on. Please comment in the slack channel letting us know your plans to attend after obtaining approval from your manager or comment in the epic for the event.

In an effort to publicly share where people can find GitLab at events in person throughout the world, we have created about.gitlab.com/events. This page is to be updated by the person responsible for the event. To update the page, you will need to contribute to the event master.yml. If you need more information about our exact involment in an specific event please visit the marketing project in gitlab.com and search the name of the event for any realted issues. The "Meta" issue should include the most thorough and high level details about each event we are participating in.

Details to be included (all of which are mandatory in order for your MR to pass the build):

Topic - Name of the event you would like to add

Type - Please choose one of the following: Diversity, Conference, MeetUp, Speaking Engagement, Webinar, Community Event or GitLab Connect. Events cannot have more than one type. If more than one apply, choose the best. If you feel your event doesn’t fit in the below category, do not just manually add a type. Please reach out to events@gitlab.com to suggest a new type of event.

Date - Start date of event

Date ends - Day event ends

Description - Brief overview about event (can be taken from event homepage).

Location - city, state,provinces, districts, counties (etc depending on country), country where event will take place

Region - NORAM, LATAM, EMEA, APAC, or Online

Social tags - hashtag for event shared by event host

Event URL - homepage for event

Example

- topic: The Best DevOps Conference Ever
type: Conference
date: January 1, 2050
date_ends: January 3, 2050 # Month DD, YYYY
description: |
The Best DevOps Conference Ever brings together the best minds in the DevOps land. The conference consists of 3 full days of DevOps magic, literally magic. Attendees will have the opportunity to partake in fire talks and moderated sessions. This is one you won’t want to miss.
location: Neverland, NVR
region: APAC
social_tags: DEVOPS4LIFE
event_url: https://2050.bestdevops.org

At times, we will want to create an event specific page that links from the about.gitlab.com/events page. The purpose of this page is to let people know additional details about GitLab’s presence at the event, how to get in touch with us at the event, and conference sessions we are speaking in (if applicable).

Ops Steps needed before page can lunch:

Create an issue in the general marketing project using the Event Landing Page Ops template. Ops needs the following info:

Who will be at the live event taking meetings. This person will also need to be setup in Outreach.

Meeting time and dates open for meeting scheduling, plus default meeting duration

Copy for invite flow- this is what customer will see once they set meeting.